Most of us live with varying levels of pain and disappointment. People let us down. Circumstances can be unpleasant. There is sin and sickness and tragedy in the world. Let's face it ... we're not in heaven ... yet. We live in a world tainted by sin and in bodies tainted by sin and we all suffer to some degree or another. What do we do with it? How do we deal with it?
The question seems to be one of direction. Are we looking at it from our own needs and pain, or from an outward view? For all of us, we are generally on the inward view. We are more concerned about our needs, our desires, our wishes, our pain. We see people in terms of "What can they give to me?" and when they don't, we're upset. But Scripture speaks of a different perspective. Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8:34). Any follower of Christ is expected to deny himself, to die to self. Instead, we are expected to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind' (Matt 22:37). That's vertical -- us and God. Horizontally -- us and others -- we are to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt 22:39) or, for disciples of Jesus, to "love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). Notice the directions. First, not to self. We're to deny ourselves. Second, the direction is outward, first to God, and second to others. Not to self. So we are commanded to love -- love God and love others. That love gives. There is nothing in love that takes. It does not seek its own (1 Cor 13:5). It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It never takes.
Direction matters. We are naturally inclined to direct all issues to ourselves. Scripture calls on us to direct everything outwardly. Not "When do I get mine?" but "What can I give to others?" The expectation is that all we need coming in will be provided by God (Rom 8:32; Php 4:19). We're free to give it all away, expecting God to supply. When we start taking it all for ourselves, expect problems.
8 comments:
“For all of us, we are generally on the inward view. We are more concerned about our needs, our desires, our wishes, our pain…. We are naturally inclined to direct all issues to ourselves.”
This certainly makes sense if we function from a totally humanistic view: “I must take care of myself--look out for #1. No one else will do that for me if I don’t.” A humanistic perspective would consider this “survival of the fittest”--a necessary and admirable priority for each of us to hold. However, as you say, Christians don’t need to fret and fuss just to get through life; we have a loving Heavenly Father to provide and care for us, so that “Me first!” attitude--and the selfish actions prompted by it--can be flipped around. This is so antithetical in a self-centered world that we are deemed a bit “crazy”--and man, does Satan hate when we live like that!
This works best when both parties are giving mutual love. The difficulty comes when only one is doing the loving. When we pour into others, and have nobody pouring into us, how do we reconcile that without losing sight of our need to pour into others?
Funny you should ask, David. I just read this this morning. "Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act." (Psa 37:3-5)
It's interesting to me that "self-love" is assumed in Scripture (Eph 5:29). We just overdo it.
Yes, and there is that “think[ing] more highly of himself than he ought to think” from yesterday! When we instead “think so as to have sound judgment,” we are properly focused on God as the Provider for His children, freeing ourselves from self-preservation and excessive self-love.
But, David, isn’t that the very definition of Christian love--to give to others with no regard for benefit to ourselves? To make that sacrificial effort even if there is no “return” on our actions? It is terribly difficult, as you say, and it’s against our human (sinful) nature. As Stan writes, we then trust God to love us, as we “pour into others.” He sees all our efforts and honors them, I am confident.
So much of a materialistic/Darwinian worldview is predicated on the so called "selfish gene", that the highest principle of life is successfully replicating one's genes to insure their survival. It's why materialists and the like admit that altruism is, at best, selfishly acting for one's own benefit.
That’s interesting, Craig. I am sure the notion of a “selfish gene” would have thought-provoking treatment from both evolutionistic/atheistic and Biblical Creation perspectives! (Creation.com has an article about it, but I haven’t read it yet. But I’m definitely not planning to read Dawkins’ book.) Personally, I find it interesting and telling that so many biblical truths about fallen man and his sinful tendencies are explained away or otherwise accounted for by the Bible deniers. Some of their postulations are interesting--like the one you mention--and others are quite laughable, yet they are offered to the public with equal seriousness!
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